Dreams - Take one, Leave one

Ok, so I kinda got the funny things you have heard about beer thread off topic (as if it ever really stays on topic) talking about dreams.

I am one of those weird types who rarely remembers his dreams. I kinda feel that I am missing out on something special. Then again when I do remember my dreams, they usually are thematic.

For example, for two years or so in all the dreams I remembered I was able to hover/fly, and could swear that if I could remember how I did it I could do it in real life. As I started waking up I started sinking and my hovering ceiling dropped until I woke I was back on the ground.

When I was much younger they were secret agent style dreams.

Over this past week or so, I have had a pair of dreams featuring the same young lady I have not yet met in awake life. Who knows if this is my next trend.


So I ask this. Leave a weird/interesting/awesome dream, or take one that someone else has experienced and shared so others like me can enjoy them. And lets keep them as clean as the Drunken Ramblings thread allows.

I rarely remembered my dreams as well. When I do, it seems to come in waves (several nights over the course of a week or two). As I mentioned in the funny things thread, the people I encounter in them are usually strangers, or at best distant acquaintances. Close friends, family, or my wife don't show up too often. I feel like I have some of the common themes: work, flying, and yeah, occasionally brewing. I even still get the "wake up and realize you forgot about being enrolled in a college class and the final is today" dreams. I haven't been in college in 8 years. I also notice that whenever I have a dream about fist-fighting, I suck at it. My punches move in super slow motion and if I hit, it's like giving them a gentle tap on the shoulder.

When I first went on the patch to quit smoking, I dreamt a buddy from work and I were driving in the country on a sunny day, fields on both sides, cattle, ect.
In just one of the fields there were several tornados, but no clouds. They reached way into the sky and down to the ground, but weren't moving or swirling.
They were all made out of red plaid fabric with bows at the ground.

Half of my dreams are reruns of the days events. Sometimes as they happened. Sometimes with alternate happenings. A quarter are some of the days events with ideas for the near future, like the next day. These have been very helpful in figuring things out.

Most of them are very vivid. Full color, with sound, and often feel and smell. It's like being awake and living it while I'm asleep and dreaming it.

Other times, I can't see peoples faces. It's not that they're covered or not there. I just don't see them.

Sometimes I know I'm dreaming, will tell myself that, and take control of the situation when it's going bad. "Oh hey. I'm dreaming. None of this counts and I can do anything. Watch this!"

The other quarter are totally jacked up situations and horrible nightmares. They don't scare me though. If it's something trying to get me, I'm focused on getting away from or defeating it. If it's bad stuff happening to other people or things, well, it's not be, so, meh. When I'm the bad guy, I'm never first person. I'm fly on the wall. Me watching me. Even me being me, but not as me in first person. In all of them, the observer or remote me is thinking, "because this is how people are. This is what we do."

Zuljin said:

Sometimes I know I'm dreaming, will tell myself that, and take control of the situation when it's going bad. "Oh hey. I'm dreaming. None of this counts and I can do anything. Watch this!"

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Lucid dreams are very cool. I'll have dreams that I know are dreams somewhat regularly (say once or twice a month), but very few that I seem to be able to take control of. A friend told me that there are mental exercises to do to increase that ability, but I've never had much luck.

One summer when I was a kid, I was obsessed with determining the exact moment I fell asleep. It was hard. All I did was extend the amount of time it took to really fall asleep. Laying there kind of half asleep and half awake. Am I asleep now? No. I wouldn't know it if I were. Damn it!

I'm one that sleeps HARD. Like, it takes 3-4 alarms to wake me up in the morning (which is odd, because if my fire pager goes off, my feet will be on the floor before the first tones finish). As such, I rarely remember my dreams - but one in particular sticks in my mind.

I was out on a Geocaching trip, searching for a cache in a town about 30 miles from home. The cache was located across the street from a church, where a wedding was taking place. I parked the car, got out and was searching for the cache when the wedding ended and the bridal party was making their way to the limousine. I then noticed my dog...slowly driving my car around the block, over and over and over. And for some reason, it didn't strike me at all odd that he was driving....

...but my car is a manual transmission, and I couldn't figure out how he was shifting.

THAT'S the part of that dream that hit me as odd. Not that my labrador retriever was driving my car, but that he could drive a stick.


I also am a member of the segment of people that have hallucinogenic reactions to the most common ingredient in cough medicines, so any time I get a chest cold, I get to make the choice of waking up repeatedly all night coughing, or waking up every 45 min or so with some of the WEIRDEST dreams you can imagine. (I have perfected the art of sleeping with a Halls cough drop tucked in next to my gum) I don't think the "Sage driving an Accord" episode was one of them, normally it's a case of wake up, think "What the FLOCK was that??" and then the next day not remember the specific dream, just that it was weird.

Since I was a kid I've had a recurring nightmare hundreds of times. First time I recall it I was about 7 or 8. I dream that I wake up and know what's going on around me but can't move. I can't control my breathing but can make a sound every time I exhale. In my dream sometimes I think I'm saying something like "help" or "wake me up". In reality it's just a groan (the Mrs. hears it & wakes me up). I know what's going on at the time but still panic. In reality I'm not awake because in the dream I'm in a house I used to live in, I'm in a different room, I hear rain when there is none, etc. Creepy if for no other reason than it won't go away.

No paved roads. That was last night. Roads, highways, even interstates. None of them were paved. They were all made of that fine crushed gravel like plant nurseries and camp sites use. The idea was better drainage and cheaper roads. Even parking lots were gravel. Because of this, everyone drove pickup trucks, jeeps, awd rally type cars and hopped up dirt bikes. There were no speed limits and no lane markings. We still had signs, and they were revamped to account for the loss of markings. Driving on pavement was only done at race tracks. Other than that, it was life as normal. Just no paved roads.

As a youngster the family was staying at my grandma's cottage on a lake. I was dreaming that I was in school but walked into my older sister's classroom. I knew I didn't belong there. I knew I was asleep but I couldn't get myself to wake up. The teacher told me to go to the back of the room and lie down on the table and go to sleep. How could I wake up if I wasn't sleeping??

Made sense so that's what I did. My sister woke me up at that time. It was like 10:00 am and everyone else was up having breakfast. I was usually the first one up at that age. I don't know how late I would have slept in if they hadn't woke me up!

Another time I had a dream that I was in that same cottage (ok it's just a house on a lake...) I don't think I was actually there in person, but remembered it in a dream. I dreamed I had a small bug on my tongue. I pulled it out and it was black and creepy and nasty looking!

I may have actually seen this thing as a kid before this, but I honestly didn't recognize it. It was only like LAST YEAR that I discovered what it really was. Since that dream I assumed I just dreamed up some awful thing to scare my pants off.

Turns out I dreamed of a Ladybug Larvae:



I had that same dream a few times over the years.

I once fell asleep on the living room floor while watching TV. In the dream, I dreamed that I was asleep on the living room floor while watching TV & woke up. I couldn't move & there was a rat the size of a small dog slowly crawling in my direction. There was a plate of biscuits on the floor next to me & I knew they would attract this huge rat towards me; but if I could just toss one to the rat, it would take time to stop & eat the biscuit, giving me more time to get my body moving & get away. I tried & tried, but couldn't move. Finally, I was able to move 1 arm just enough to get hold of a biscuit & weakly throw it at the rat. Just then, my real hand hit my real face & I woke up from the rat dream, still on the living room floor, of course; looking around the room for the giant rat.
A little unsettling at the time.
Regards, GF.

Hamaki said:

Since I was a kid I've had a recurring nightmare hundreds of times. First time I recall it I was about 7 or 8. I dream that I wake up and know what's going on around me but can't move. I can't control my breathing but can make a sound every time I exhale. In my dream sometimes I think I'm saying something like "help" or "wake me up". In reality it's just a groan (the Mrs. hears it & wakes me up). I know what's going on at the time but still panic. In reality I'm not awake because in the dream I'm in a house I used to live in, I'm in a different room, I hear rain when there is none, etc. Creepy if for no other reason than it won't go away.

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That happened to me last week (1st time I can remember). I was asleep, and I thought (not entirely sure) that I woke up and heard a noise in the bedroom. It didn't sound like my wife was up and it was too dark to see much of anything. I tried to call out "hello?" several times, but all that came out was a whisper. Otherwise I couldn't move anything but my eyes. After laying there for what felt like 5 minutes, I managed to squeeze my eyes shut as hard as I could, which seemed to wake me up or at least shake my body out of the sleep paralysis. It was pretty freaky in the meantime.

I had a very lucid dream one time but I won't go into details. Suffice to say I nearly cried when I woke up.

Odd set of dreams (4-6 times) from earlier this year.

I was part of a group talking about a set of plans to build something, no clue what it was, the drawings were all blurry, all I ever did was ask question and no one ever looked up from the plans. One night I asked a question along the lines of "why not do XYZ it would be faster, simpler and still function the same way." At that moment one of the people, a lady looked up directly at me and said "Thank you that solves the problem we have been having." I woke up immediate like I was released from being detained with a sense of relief. This dream has not returned and has me wondering was I dealing with real people or just all in my head.

gratus fermentatio said:

I once fell asleep on the living room floor while watching TV. In the dream, I dreamed that I was asleep on the living room floor while watching TV & woke up. I couldn't move & there was a rat the size of a small dog slowly crawling in my direction. There was a plate of biscuits on the floor next to me & I knew they would attract this huge rat towards me; but if I could just toss one to the rat, it would take time to stop & eat the biscuit, giving me more time to get my body moving & get away. I tried & tried, but couldn't move. Finally, I was able to move 1 arm just enough to get hold of a biscuit & weakly throw it at the rat. Just then, my real hand hit my real face & I woke up from the rat dream, still on the living room floor, of course; looking around the room for the giant rat.
A little unsettling at the time.
Regards, GF.

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I was sitting in the living room reading a sci fi novel (maybe 13 years old). The main character awoke on a barroom floor not remembering how he wound up there.

Immediately after reading that paragraph I stood up, promptly fainted, and woke up on the floor identifying with the character and not knowing what the hell happened. The timing was bizarre. First and only time I have ever fainted.

Great tellings all. I am glad I am not the only one with a subconscious that is extra creative.

Anyone ever have one of those dreams where you are on the verge of waking, say something to someone in your dream, have it come out spoken out loud and have them not hear you? I used to have a span of dreams where this happened and I was still semi asleep and do this. Then I realize I am asleep and have to 'say' it by thinking I am saying it. Of course I wake up in the next few minutes anyway.

With how bizarre my dreams are when i remember them I probably should pursue the whole lucid dreaming thing. I really would like to remember them more often.

Also, as messed up as it sounds, my subconscious is a real d*ck. I always get blocked in my dreams. They always either dont get around to the interesting parts or I block myself in them. Sad huh?

DrunkleJon I think you are normal. I have been medically put under twice in my life for surgery and twice I have been told how much of a free speaking jerk (closer to d**k) I can be.

Kee said:

I was sitting in the living room reading a sci fi novel (maybe 13 years old). The main character awoke on a barroom floor not remembering how he wound up there.

Immediately after reading that paragraph I stood up, promptly fainted, and woke up on the floor identifying with the character and not knowing what the hell happened. The timing was bizarre. First and only time I have ever fainted.

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When I was a kid one guy would hold his breath and another would bear hug him till he blacked out. Used to have some pretty vivid dreams that way. I don't remember any dreams when I got knocked out boxing, though. Last time I blacked out I regained consciousness before I hit the ground & during that half second or so the dream seemed like it lasted the better part of an hour.

For the late feeding I usually sit with the baby in my arms on the glider chair and rock him with the bottle in his mouth. Usually we both doze off (only guy I know who can eat a full meal sound asleep). The other day I dreamed, while asleep with him in my arms, that I was still in the chair and had woken up to see that I had dropped him to the floor.

I woke up with a start, woke him up and he started crying. Worst dream I have ever had.

On a somewhat related topic, I read somewhere on the interwebs that drinking a lot of apple juice immediately before bed can lead to very vivid, intense dreams.

I don't typically keep a lot of apple juice on hand, as I'm not a grade-schooler, nor do I own any, so instead I downed a few pints of hard cider before bed.

It was pretty cool. I usually forget my dreams as soon as I wake up, but this time the dreams were very vivid and memorable. It felt less like I was in a dream and more like it was actually happening, at least until I woke up.

I've tried it a few more times since. It can be fun, provided I don't have to be anywhere early the next morning.

Maybe I will have to give it a try next time I make up a batch of apfelwein. I want to dream more.

DrunkleJon said:

Maybe I will have to give it a try next time I make up a batch of apfelwein. I want to dream more.

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Most people dream they are calling Edwort an MotherF$%^!!

Homercidal said:

Most people dream they are calling Edwort an MotherF$%^!!

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You have a point there. With how much my head hurts after binging on apfelwein I do not know if dreams are worth the pain. Maybe since I brew it 5-15 gallons at a time and get the childrens abv apfelwein in 2 gallon increments from costco I can use the spare gallon.

Many of my friends call me a MotherF$%^!! after they fail to heed the disclamer that I stole near verbatim from Edworts orginial warning.

Years ago, I took melatonin for the weird dreams. After a while, I just slept way too long, so stopped taking it.
Also Chantix dreams are very vivid. Dreamt my cat was stenciling my walls. Because it was near the baseboard and she was holding the paintbrush in her mouth, it was totally plausible.
I worked day shift at the time, and always dreamt that I was at work, with the alarm clock being something within the dreams. It was a big problem because I was regularly late for work

SharonaZamboni said:

Years ago, I took melatonin for the weird dreams. After a while, I just slept way too long, so stopped taking it.
Also Chantix dreams are very vivid. Dreamt my cat was stenciling my walls. Because it was near the baseboard and she was holding the paintbrush in her mouth, it was totally plausible.
I worked day shift at the time, and always dreamt that I was at work, with the alarm clock being something within the dreams. It was a big problem because I was regularly late for work

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I have my periods of lucid dreaming.

Potassium works great for gaining control and increasing the vividness of it, but the best solution for those who want to control your dream state is keeping a dream journal.

It allows you to recognize the dream state as it starts which allows you to take conscious control. Meditation helps as well. Your subconscious isn't as plagued by the day.

This hasn't happened much in recent years, but it used to be that if my wife fell asleep under certain conditions (usually nodding off accidentally while watching TV), she would have extremely vivid and abstract dreams. They frequently revolved around a) supernatural/mythical creatures, b) animals, and/or c) alcohol (we were in college at the time :cross.

The really trippy part was that she reached a state like hypnotic suggestion where she would narrate aloud what was happening, and if I talked back to her it would influence the dream. Usually this lead to her saying some really hilarious off-the-wall stuff. A couple of times she started making out with me while still totally asleep. Another time she was having a nightmare, believed I was a clown (she's deathly afraid of clowns) and attempted to physically throw me out of bed.

On one occasion, she and her roommate were both asleep and carrying on a conversation across the room with each other. The roommate believed in her dream that she had gotten pregnant. Her boyfriend didn't have a job at the time, and she was worried about how it happened and how they would afford the baby. My wife sat up, opened her eyes (still asleep) and offered the response: "why didn't you just close the zipper?"

Dreams happen in the part of our brain that has short term memory. When you wake up while dreaming you remember it vividly.

That's why after waking up and getting ready for the day, you forget what you dreamed.

Different dreams at different times in my life. When a cop in a rough neighborhood, I would dream I was at work and fighting, but always ineffectively. If I hit someone, they'd shrug it off, shot at them my gun wouldn't fire. I still sometimes dream of fighting, but it's ghosts or monsters. When my brother was dying, and after, I had violent bloody nightmares. Now that I'm retired, I often dream that I am back on patrol, or back at sea in the Coast Guard. But it's never quite right, different guys, different boats. The strangest thing I've dreamt regularly is sailing on land. It's quite a trick to keep my boat balanced on her keel while sailing down busy streets and sidewalks. I haven't crashed her yet though. I also now have hombrew dreams.

I usually don't dream. I used to, but not in like the last 12-15 years. When I was in my early teens it would take me like 30-45 minutes to fall asleep, and I would dream. Now I fall asleep within 3-5 minutes and only have a dream about once a year. The exception to that was after I graduated from college. Every so often I would have the "not enough credits" dream where I had to go back for a semester. That was horrible. Must've had it at least half a dozen times over the course of 4-5 years. Also have had dreams where I am at work if I had just started or things were stressful. Thankfully I didn't have as much of that when I got my current job almost five years ago since it's much less stressful.

At least once a year I have a dream that either college or high school has called me to say my paperwork was messed up and I will have to return to school to finish my degree/diploma.

I have been sleeping like crap for a while. On the plus side it looks like I have been dreaming again, or at least remembering them. New theme this time. Apparently I am some sort of burglar that can not walk on the floors (kinda like the childhood game of the floor is lava). Or maybe i cant be seen if I dont touch the floor. I dont know. It makes sense in the dream. Then I get trapped in a house that I did not need to go into in the first place and there is someone after me or the owners are psychopaths.

I've been trapped in a house with psychopaths. But at the time I just called them girlfriends.

Once I dreamt I was a muffler
I woke up exhausted.
The next night I dreamt I worked for Goodyear,
I woke up Tired.

Well, it appears that I have started a new round of dream-ja vu. Last night I woke up 2 hours after i fell asleep from a deja vu type of dream, so it appears they are happening again where I was the main character in some sort of video game. Apparently the video game is just starting off, is kinda an old school turn based rpg with kickass graphics and some unbelievable camera angles (then again I may be biased because I was 'living' it), and for some reason is set in one of my old childhood homes and another family members house, though modified. There also appears to be some sort of fire superpower or I am just a pyro in it.

Unfortunately, though it seems that whoever is playing/controlling the game is one of those 'must do everything perfectly types, as it is kind of slow and I already know what is going to be expected of me.

Are you a gamer? I used to have those dreams all the time and it reached the point where I would stop playing 1 hour before bed. Problem solved.

Nope. Last console I bought was a PS2, last games I played were D3 and Skyrim and it has been what seems like a year since I have played either. I have spent the past few weeks in renovation mode. Maybe it is a subconscious desire to say "F it! Im burning the place down."

i had a severe inception-style dream not that long ago. i used to have them off and on even before that movie came out, but this last one was like 5 levels deep and very vivid.

i still don't know if i'm awake.....

I have a recurring element in my dreams; in my dream I'll often run on all fours, like an animal. I don't turn into an animal, but I can run like one & when I do, I run very fast. I don't dream that all the time, but it's a fairly common dream element for me.
Regards, GF.

I have a lot of dreams where I have discovered some method of flying. Usually its because I have found special shoes, but I can float above the ground in some way.

Jung saw sex in flying dreams... so I must be more preoccupied with sex than most...